Tether (USDT) Supply Surpasses $100 Billion for the First Time

Tether (USDT), the largest stablecoin in the crypto industry, has for the first time achieved a market capitalization exceeding $100 billion, driven by surging investment demand from the market.

Tether (USDT) Supply Surpasses $100 Billion. Image: Decrypt

On the morning of March 5th, amidst Bitcoin surpassing $68,600 and nearing its ATH at $69,000, another cornerstone of the crypto world, the stablecoin Tether (USDT), marked a historic milestone by surpassing $100 billion in market capitalization for the first time in its decade-long history.

Over the past seven days, the supply of USDT has increased by an additional $2 billion, officially reaching $100.2 billion today, with the latest issuances occurring on the TRON network.

Since October 2023, the beginning of the crypto market's recovery, Tether's market capitalization has expanded by an additional $17 billion.

According to the latest data updated on the Tether website, over half of the USDT supply is concentrated on TRON with $53 billion USDT, followed by Ethereum with $46 billion, and significantly smaller amounts on other blockchains.

Currently, Tether commands over 69% of the entire stablecoin market share, far ahead of USDC (20.5%), DAI (3.4%), and FDUSD (2.2%).

During the previous market cycle, Tether's market capitalization peaked at $83 billion in April 2022, just before the LUNA-UST crash. Moving into 2023, this stablecoin gained substantial market share as its main competitors, USDC and BUSD, faced depegging issues and legal restrictions respectively.

In 2023, Tether also enjoyed significant success due to its strategy of investing a large amount of collateral assets for USDT into US commercial paper, yielding profits of up to $6.2 billion. The company subsequently used these profits to create surplus reserves for USDT and to invest in Bitcoin, gold, and other initiatives.

All of Tether's US commercial paper is held at Cantor Fitzgerald, an asset management firm based in New York, USA. In a January 2024 statement to the press, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick affirmed Tether's sufficient asset backing to maintain the value of USDT, expressing confidence in the stablecoin's operational model.